This invention relates to carpet seaming tools, and more particularly to an improved such tool which functions, during use, to draw together the edges of the carpets that are being seamed together. More particularly this invention relates to an improved such tool having mounted thereon for rotation coaxially about a common axis a plurality of aligned, spirally shaped rollers which are designed to be rolled on the edges of the carpets that are to be seamed together.
During the installation of carpeting, it is quite commonplace to secure together, in abutting relation with each other, the edges of two different carpets or carpet sections. Typically this involves arranging the two carpet sections or carpets so that the two edges in question are disposed in confronting, engaged relation with each other. In order to secure the two edges in abutting relation to each other the edges are temporarily separated in order to secure to the floor or surface upon which the carpets are seated, a strip of material which is aligned with the proposed location of the carpet seam, and the upper surface of which has thereon an adhesive coating. One manner of seaming the carpet edges together involves a system such as disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 6,302,178, wherein an iron is initially employed to heat and melt the adhesive, after which the iron is removably mounted upon a heavy seam weight having a plane bottom surface which is advanced along the seam to secure the confronting edges of the carpet to the heated, adhesive material.
Instead of employing a plane, flat weight item to secure a carpet seam, U.S. Pat. No. 4,224,726 and No. Des. 241,704 disclose carpet seam rollers which are rolled along the abutting edges of two carpet sections in order to urge and secure the abutting carpet sections to the underlying adhesive. The rollers in the first of the above-noted patents comprise a plurality of discs rotatably mounted adjacent each other on a common shaft, and with each disc comprising a plurality of radially disposed, angularly spaced teeth, the tips of which are disposed to be placed in rolling engagement with the sections of the carpet that are to be adhered to the adhesive. The rollers in the seaming tool disclosed in the above-noted U.S. design patent also comprise a plurality of discs mounted to rotate coaxially on each of three different shafts, with each disc also comprising a plurality of radially disposed, angularly spaced teeth similar in configuration to the teeth referred to in the U.S. Pat. No. 4,224,726. While these prior art devices may be affective in forcing sections of carpet into engagement with the underlying adhesive strip, nevertheless each roller comprises a large plurality of teeth shaped projections which tend in part to force carpet sections into engagement with the underlying adhesive, but at the same time upon being rotated through the carpet knap, also tend to leave undesirable marks in the underlying carpet and therefore form undesirable disturbed portions of the carpet adjacent each side of the associated seam.
It is an object of this invention, therefore, to provide improved carpet seaming tools utilizing rollers which are easier to manufacture and more inexpensive than prior rollers of the type noted above, and which also eliminate or avoid the introduction of any undesirable distortion of the associated knap or surface of the carpet sections adjacent opposite sides of the associated seam.
A further object of this invention is to provide an improved carpet seaming tool having a plurality of similar, spirally shaped rollers mounted for rotation coaxially about a shaft mounted upon one end of a handle that is utilized for urging the rollers against adjacent portions of a carpet or carpet sections that are to be seamed together.
Still another object of this invention is to provide an improved carpet seaming tool of the type described wherein two sets of rollers are mounted on opposite ends of a handle for rotation about spaced, parallel axes, one set of rollers being of like, spiral configuration, and the other set being of like, cylindrical configuration.
Other objects of the invention will be apparent hereinafter from the specification and from the recital of the appended claims, particularly when read in conjunction with the accompanying drawings.
One tool includes a cylindrically shaped metal handle surrounded at one end by a plastic hand grip, and secured at its opposite end centrally to the outer surface of the central, planar section of a U-shaped bracket, with the axial centerline of the handle inclined transversely at an angle of about 45xc2x0 to the center of the bracket. The bracket has two spaced, parallel legs which project from opposite ends of the center section at right angles to its inside surface, and which have therein a pair of registering openings. A shaft which is secured intermediate its ends in the registering openings on the bracket legs have rotatably mounted thereon three rollers one of which rotates on the shaft between the bracket legs, and the other two of which rotate on the shaft at opposite ends of the bracket. Each roller is spirally shaped intermediate its ends, and has formed thereon an outer, circumferential, spirally shaped surface which is disposed to roll on the surfaces of the two sections of the carpet that are being seamed together. In another embodiment the metal handle is curved intermediate its ends and has secured at the opposite end thereof another U-shaped bracket, which has secured intermediate its ends in registering openings in its two legs another shaft upon which are rotatably mounted three cylindrically shaped rollers, one of which rotates between the bracket legs and the other two of which rotate adjacent opposite ends of the bracket. When the tool is placed in use the cylindrically shaped rollers are disposed to have the smooth outer surfaces thereof in rolling engagement of the same carpet section engaged by the spirally shaped rollers carried on the opposite end of the handle.